Palestinian activism evolves in Prawer protests - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/12/prawer-plan-negev-israel-palestine-bedouin-protest.html
There exists a near consensus among Palestinian activists and lawyers interviewed by Al-Monitor that the forces leading the Palestinian movement in this case are not the traditional ones. Ben Berri said that youth are playing a prominent role. Meanwhile, traditional factions, such as the High Steering Committee, have lost a lot of their influence among Israeli Arabs.
Lawyer Jihad Abu Raya, one of the attorneys who volunteered to defend the dozens of young people arrested Nov. 30, pointed out to Al-Monitor, “The detainees’ educational level was remarkably high, unlike past occurrences, and their ranks included artists and professionals who garnered a lot of popular support.” Ben Berri offered a different perspective, however, arguing that “The movement’s momentum was not great,” and that “The 1970s saw many large-scale movements within Arab circles, which makes it hard to say that this movement is unprecedented.”
Activists in the territories occupied in 1967 and in Europe do agree with the assessment that some aspects of this movement are, in fact, unprecedented. However, they also admit that quantitatively, it is still limited in popular participation.